Issue 054, Saoirse : Irish Freedom (October, 1991)

              40p usa 24 per year uimh 54 deireadh fomhaif - october 1991 lotb 1981 of strike this month's saoirse is a 12-page paper with the extra pages devoted to a record of the historic 1981 hunger strike we have increased our price to 40p to cover the costs see pages 6-9 • pat finucane - victim of the ruc inner force assassination campaign assassins evidence that the ruc and udr co-operates in an assassination campaign against republicans and catholics providing intelligence and deciding when it is time to remove people was presented in a dispatches special documentary on british television on wednesday night october 2 the channel four investigation stated that collusion was widespread by means of close and unofficial co-operation between british crown forces and loyalist death squads the channel for this collusion is through the inner force composed of serving members of the ruc and udr which provides the means for the campaign of assassin ation the inner force has members in every division of the ruc it indicates potential targets to the loyalist death squads gives them official files and provides sur veillance and logistical support in the carrying out of killings the declared aim of this group is for an independ ent six counties arising out of loyalist demoralisation and their failure to defeat the 1985 hillsborough deal dispatches also revealed that the two-year-old ulster central co-ordinating committee has now decided to go public they called the loyalist truce in may of this year and an unseen spokesman explained that they were made up of about 60 members including unofficial representatives of the ruc and udr the uvf uff protestant action force orange order and prominent business people solic itors and politicians a hooded liaison officer said that the inner force would normally come to the central co-ordinating committee at its meetings and advise that the time is now right for a certain republican to be eliminated after discussion the attack would usually be left to the local inner force group who would pro vide safe passage for a loyalist death squad and guarantee them 15 minutes to leave the area after striking consistent these details will strike many nationalists in the six counties as being consistent with innumer able attacks on their commun ities the programme examined in detail four attacks since february 1989 • the attack by the uvf which killed lurgan man sam marshall in march 1990 he was returning from signing on for bail at the nearby ruc station with two companions when he was shot . the attack was planned in an east tyrone hotel where the jackal and his uvf squad were briefed by ruc members about the men's movements british army surveillance equipment was discovered trained on one of sam marshall's companion's house the day after the shooting two cars were used in the attack both containing ruc men who tracked the three men and led the gang out of the nationalist kilwilkie estate afterwards locals said no checkpoints were set up forover an hour afterwards ; • the uff killing of lawyer pat finucane at his belfast home in february 1989 this was planned at finaghy orange hall two weeks before when the inner force proposed his assass ination to the committee • the killings of four men - john quinn dwayne o donnell malcolm nug ent and thomas arm strong - at cappagh co tyrone on march 3 1991 by the uvf loyalist death squad leader king rat was chosen by the central coordinating comm ittee to carry out the attack the killers were led to the area by inner force members who escorted them from cappagh sinn fein poblachtach 9-10 november 1991 spa hotel lucan co dublin afterwards there was intensive british crown forces activity before the attack and following it the ruc openly boasted about the killings and named two men who were involved at road-blocks around cappagh portadown loyalist billy wright admitted on the programme he was questioned about the attack by the ruc but denied he was king rat • the killing of denis car ville claimed by the protest ant action force on the shores of lough neagh in october 1990 the central co-ordinating committee decided a direct and similar retaliation would be carr ied out for the killing at the lough shore two weeks earlier of a udr soldier the inner force patrolled the area to locate a catholic in a car with his girl friend and king rat shot the 19-year-old man the killer was carried out of the area and left home and the inner force mem bers went back on ruc duty a total of 24 loyalist killings this year and 50 over the past three years including those above are all unsolved 1000 files in relation to the stevens inquiry the programme stated that although 1000 republican suspects files had been leaked to loyalist death squads not one ruc officer was charged inner force members in every ruc division ensured that they had a week's notice of the movements of the stevens inquiry team and protected themselves the revelations of the dis patches investigation come on the same day that the ruc were trying to explain away the latest shoot-to-kill incident in cooks town co tyrone on sunday september 29 in which a 19 year-old student kevin mcgov ern was shot dead on his way to a disco with two friends eye witnesses said that no warning was given before the camou flaged ruc undercover unit opened fire . ellis the documentary was broad cast on the same day also that extradited dublin man dessie ellis appeared in court in britain with his lawyer arguing that he could not possibly get a fair trial on conspiracy charges and the crown introducing new evidence as the trial opened in a similar manner to the gilbert mcnamee frame-up the same day as british foreign secretary douglas hurd gave evidence at the may inquiry into the frame ups of the guildford four and the maguires collusion was also highlighted in recent weeks by the case of south african-born queen's un iversity lecturer adrian guelke who the uff attemtped to murder in his bed on september 5 . the uff statement of respon sibility quoted facts from the intelligence file of another per son and the ruc admitted guelke was mistaken for that man in the light of this further expose of the widespread coll usion between british crown forces and loyalist death squads pressure should be intensified on the 26-county administration of charlie haughey to stop handing over photographs and intelligence files on irish people to those who would set them up for assassination and end the shameful extradition of irish cit izens into the hands of these assassins collaboration with british crown forces means nothing less than complicity in the deaths of fellow irishmen and women stop it now !